


Dragons and Baths

by altoinkblots



Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: Discord: Widojest Love, Established Relationship, F/M, Fluff, Gen, Love Confessions, Mild Hurt/Comfort, Secret Santa
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-30
Updated: 2020-12-30
Packaged: 2021-03-10 17:20:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,412
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28420851
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/altoinkblots/pseuds/altoinkblots
Summary: After the Mighty Nein defeat a dragon and they go back to the inn to nurse their wounds, Jester and Caleb have a little bit of a chat in an unconventional situation.
Relationships: Jester Lavorre/Caleb Widogast, The Mighty Nein & The Mighty Nein
Kudos: 46





	Dragons and Baths

**Author's Note:**

> Sorry that this is so late, but here's my Secret Santa gift. This takes place in an indeterminate time in canon, but Caleb and Jester are "canon" at this point. This is shameless fluff, so enjoy!!

Jester scrambled over a jagged rock to get a better vantage point of the battle. It was nearly over, something that she was glad about. Even still, the giant green beast in front of her and the rest of the Nein was going to be tricky to take down, even as well-off as they had been during the rest of the battle. She slid down the rock and towards the dragon. Every instinct told her to run, but those were her  _ friends. _ Besides, she wanted to take a dragon down.

Yasha rammed her greatsword into the dragon’s flank as T-Rex-Caleb kept its attention at its head. Still, the dragon roared and flailed around. Jester didn’t want to get too close, but she had seen Beau get knocked down earlier. She ran past the monk and, with a quick word to the Traveler, helped her to her feet. Beau muttered her thanks before she ran towards the dragon.

Two Eldritch Blasts whizzed past Jester on either side of her head. They slammed into the dragon, leaving two steaming holes in its carapace-like hide. The dragon snarled. It rose up onto its hind legs and wrapped its jaws around T-Rex Caleb’s throat. Jester cried out, but T-Rex Caleb ripped himself out of the dragon’s grip. But before anyone could do anything else, the dragon lunged at Caleb again. Jester could see the orange dinosaur’s eyes go wide as he shrunk into Caleb’s familiar form. He fell to the ground in a heap. 

Both Veth and Caduceus ran towards him. Jester ached to go as well, but he would be in good hands. Besides, she had a dragon’s ass to kick. 

She sprinted past Yasha and summoned her duplicate on the dragon’s other side. She continued to run, letting her duplicate cast Inflict Wounds on the green beast. The dragon roared in her duplicate’s face, and Jester thought that she could feel the dragon’s hot, acidic breath. 

Beau rolled out from underneath the dragon in front of her, her fists crackling with lightning. In the gaps between dragon, Jester saw Caduceus help Caleb to his feet. Veth shot a crossbow bolt up at the dragon, underneath its jaw. The bolt shot through its mouth. 

The dragon’s wings extended over the battlefield. With a swift motion, it beat them and rose a few feet into the air. Jester was knocked down to the ground at the sheer force of the wind. She grit her teeth and, ignoring what Yasha was doing, finished running to Caleb. 

He reached out to her first. “Are you all right?” he asked, his eyes scanning her for injuries. He was still a little dazed, and he had a small trail of blood by his hairline. 

“I’m fine,” she said.

Caleb nodded and smiled faintly at her. Even though Jester had seen hundreds of his small smiles--all for her--they never failed to make butterflies erupt in her stomach. 

Beau ran up to them. “Should we make a run for it?” 

Caduceus put a hand on her shoulder and mumbled a prayer to the Wildmother. Beau’s various scrapes and bruises cleared up.

Jester eyed the dragon. She kept her duplicate up and summoned her lollipop, making it slam down on the dragon. It was enough. The dragon roared and crashed down onto the ground. Jester, Beau, Caduceus, Veth, and Caleb scattered. Beau even got a few good hits in as she ran by. Unfortunately, Jester was crushed by the dragon’s tail. She gasped, the wind getting completely knocked out of her. A small part of her wondered about Sprinkle, but she could feel the weasel trembling in her hood. 

It took longer than she would have liked, but by the time she crawled out from under the dragon’s trail it was dead and she could see her friends crowding together around it, grinning and congratulating each other. Jester wiped the grime off of her skirt and joined them. 

“Glad to see you’re still up,” said Fjord. “Veth has already started looting, if you want to join her.”

Jester nodded, looking around. “Where’s Yasha?”

“Right here,” she said, jumping down from the dragon’s back. She took out a piece of cloth and wiped the gore off of her sword. 

Jester narrowed her eyes. Fjord and Yasha were right there, and she could see Caduceus praying a little ways away. Beau was by the dragon’s corpse, and Fjord had vouched for Veth. “Where’s Caleb?”

Veth poked out from the dragon. “You haven’t found Caleb?”

A spike of fear ran through Jester. “Where was he when the dragon was killed?”

“Crushed, like the rest of us,” said Beau, looking around. “You don’t think--”

Jester didn’t let her finish. She was running, scanning the ground for a shock of auburn or purple, something that was so quintessentially  _ Caleb _ that she wouldn’t miss it. She  _ couldn’t  _ miss it. She heard the rest of the Nein call out for him and start looking for him, but she couldn’t hear them through the blood pounding in her ears. “Caleb!”

She made two complete laps of the dragon, seeing nothing. She hadn’t prepared any useful spells today, and the entire time that she circled the dragon she mentally berated herself for that.  _ The  _ one _ day that you need them, and you don’t have it! _ To be fair, most of her spell slots were gone, but she would gladly use one up to find Caleb. 

Not looking where she was going, she ran into the dragon’s tail. She tripped, then shut her eyes. “Where are you?” She blinked, refusing to cry over something so stupid, and took calming breaths. Caduceus said that they would work. They didn’t.

“I found him!” Yasha yelled out. 

Jester followed the sound of her voice, to the opposite wing. Yasha held it up while Fjord and Caduceus pulled an unconscious Caleb out from under the green wing. Caduceus knelt down and closed his eyes, the Wildmother’s magic settling over Caleb. Jester skidded to a stop and fell to her knees. Caleb had even more blood around his hairline, and he was pale. Too pale.

“He’ll be all right,” Caduceus said.

Yasha put a hand on Jester’s shoulder. Veth knelt down on the other side of Caleb and took one of his hands in hers. Jester took the other one. 

“He’s going to be all right, yeah?” Beau asked.

Caduceus rose to his feet. “Yes. I only had a first level spell slot left, so I couldn’t do much healing, but he’ll be all right. Just let him rest.”

Jester squeezed Caleb’s hand and let the Traveler’s power wash over her. More color returned to his cheeks, and his chest rose and fell. Caduceus smiled and nodded at her.

One by one, the Nein wandered off. Even Veth left after a while, leaving Jester alone with Caleb. She re-positioned herself so she leaned up against the dragon’s still-warm body with Caleb’s head resting in her lap. She ran her fingers through his hair, occasionally feeling his breath tickle her wrist. 

It never ceased to amaze her at how soft Caleb could be. Yes, she knew he could be soft. He was always the first to light up dark corridors with his beautiful Dancing Lights, he was always so gentle with Frumpkin, he took Beau’s moods in stride, and she had noticed the looks he had given her for months. So, yes, Caleb was a soft, gentle man. But it was when his eyebrows relaxed for a moment, when he forgot everything that he had been through, that was when Jester truly remembered. She traced his eyebrows with a finger, then ran a finger down his nose. She could count on two hands the number of times Caleb had been this peaceful.

His eyes fluttered open. 

“Shhh,” Jester said softly. “Close your eyes, Caleb.”

He mumbled something in Zemnian that she couldn’t quite hear, but he closed his eyes anyway and reached up to grab her hand. Jester ran her thumb along his soot-stained fingers as he drifted off again. She considered something for a moment, then gave him another healing spell. 

“Don’t waste your spells on me,” he muttered.

Still holding his hand, Jester put a finger over his lips. “Shush. I can use as many healing spells on you that I want.”  _ You really scared me for a moment. _ But she didn’t say that.

As the sun slowly started to descent from its zenith, Caleb woke up. Jester helped him to his feet and they walked around the dragon, hand-in-hand. Beau rolled her eyes when she saw them, but Jester didn’t care. 

“Did you save anything good for me?” Caleb asked Veth.

“Who do you think I am?” she responded. “Here, I got you some new spell components. Make sure to use them, though, I’m not sure that we have a way to keep them from rotting.”

“I will keep that in mind, thank you.”

Almost an hour later they headed back to town. The poor innkeeper nearly cried when they dragged bits of dragon back into his inn, but Beau slipped him a platinum piece and he closed his mouth. Throughout the rest of the night, however, he glanced over at their table with a frown. 

Caleb picked out the table and Veth ordered a round of drinks for everyone. Jester sat back and enjoyed the company of her friends and the other patrons of the inn. At one point, she dragged Caleb into the middle of the inn with a wide grin on her face.

“There’s no music,” he said.

Jester shrugged. “Do we need music?”

“I guess not.”

Veth and Beau cheered. Jester stuck her tongue out at both of them as her and Caleb started to dance. Music started up soon after, and the other patrons of the inn joined in as well. Caleb winced.

“Did I step on your foot?”

“No, it’s all right.” He smiled, one of his soft ones that made her insides go all melty, one of his smiles that she knew was just for her.

“If you say so.”

Several dances later, they stumbled back to their table. 

“Seems like you two had fun,” Caduceus said.

“We did,” Jester said.

Yasha glanced at Caleb, her eyebrows raised. 

“What?” Jester asked Caleb.

He squeezed her hand. “ _ Nein, _ it is nothing. I think that I should get some rest, though. I did get crushed by a dragon, after all.”

“Hear, hear,” Yasha said, raising her mug into the air. Caleb clinked his mug against hers, and they both drank. Caleb must have been in rare form, because he kissed the crown of Jester’s head before he left. Jester barely had time to breathe before Fjord took Caleb’s spot. 

“I see things with you two are going well,” he said.

Jester nodded and drank some of her milk. Off in the corner, she heard Veth and Beau finish a drinking competition as they erupted with cheers of elation. “They really are.”

Yasha raised her eyebrows, but said nothing.

“What?”

She shook her head.

“Yasha, what?”

“It is none of my business.” She got up and left.

Fjord stared at her retreating form, his eyebrows furrowed. “What was that about?”

“I have no idea.” She leaned back in her chair. It was just her and Fjord at the table, Caduceus having gone up to bed sometime earlier. “Did you want to talk about something, Fjord?”

“What? Oh, yeah.” He cleared his throat. “Does Caleb normally favor his left side?”

“I don’t follow.”

“During the dance. Also when you two were walking around the dragon, I noticed that he was favoring his left side.”

“Oh. Why didn’t you tell him?”

“I haven’t found the time. And he just went up to bed, so…”

Jester sighed. “Next time you want me to tell Caleb something, just tell him about it. Okay?”

Fjord waved his hand around. “Yeah, yeah. I figured since, y’know, you two are…”

“Dating?”  _ Even though we haven’t really defined  _ what _ we’re doing yet… But there’s time for that later. _

“Yeah. He might want to hear something from you.”

Jetser finished her milk. “Fine, but next time, you can tell him. We’re all friends you know.”

“I know that, but… Never mind. I’ll see you tomorrow, Jes.”

“See you tomorrow,” she said as Fjord got up and left. What the  _ hell _ was that conversation about? And why hadn’t Fjord just gone to Caleb himself?

Jester stood up and walked over to the stairs that went up to the rooms. They had decided to resort to their old sleeping patterns tonight: Caleb and Veth in one room, Fjord and Caduceus in another, with Jester and Yasha and Beau in the last one. 

Jester hesitated in front of the closed door to Caleb’s room, but she didn’t hear anything. Nor did she see any light coming from underneath the door. She tested the doorknob, finding it unlocked. 

Slowly, she opened the door. Two yellow eyes stared out at her from the darkness. Jester walked over to the bed and sat down next to Frumpkin. The cat meowed softly and climbed into Jester’s lap. Jester slowly brought Sprinkle out from under her hood and placed him next to Frumpkin. She ran her fingers down the cat and looked around the room. Caleb and Veth had dropped their things off earlier, by the looks of their bags. But both beds were still made and the candles were cold.

Sprinkle settled close to Frumpkin’s belly and curled between his paws. Frumpkin made room for the weasel and started to purr. Jester scratched underneath Frumpkin’s chin. Frumpkin leaned into her touch, his purring becoming louder as his tail swished on the blankets next to her leg. 

“Do you know where Caleb is?” Jester asked. 

Frumpkin slowly blinked at her. Then he got up, stretched, and hopped off of her lap. Sprinkle whined, but Jester put him back in her hood and followed Frumpkin out the door. Frumpkin led her down the hall and to a back stairwell. He darted into the darkness, Jester behind him, until he came to a closed door. Light peeked out from the cracks around the door and Frumpkin meowed.

Jester knelt down and scratched underneath Frumpkin’s chin. “Thanks,” she said. She took Sprinkle out from her hood and placed him on Frumpkin’s back. “Take care of him, okay?”

Frumpkin blinked at her. Sprinkle crawled up onto his head. Jester stood up as the two of them left. Taking a deep breath, she knocked on the door. “Caleb?”

Moments passed by in silence, until a familiar voice called out: “Who is it?”

“It’s me, Jester.”

Footsteps shuffled on the other side of the door. The door opened and Jester blinked at the sudden light entering her eyes. Caleb stood there, steam filling the room behind him, still completely clothed. 

She smiled at him. “Hi.”

“Hi.”

Jester peeked around him, and at the bathtub filled with steaming water behind him. “Did I catch you at a bad time?”

“Ah, no. I was just…”

“Taking a bath?”

“About to, anyway. Do you--”

“Should I leave, then?”

Caleb shook his head. “No. No, I don’t want you to go.”

“Oh.”

“Do you want to…” He moved out of the doorway and held the door open.

“Oh! Sure, if you don’t mind.”

“I don’t.”

Jester smiled at him as she entered the room. Caleb closed the door behind her and stood next to her. They stared at the bathtub for a long time. At one point, Caleb found her fingers and entangled them with his. “That was a rough fight,” he said softly.

“Yeah, it was. I’m glad we all made it out okay.” She squeezed his hand for good measure.

“Most of us, anyway.”

Jester turned to him. “Are you…”

“I thought that the bath would help soothe my sore muscles, but I can’t seem to get in.”

“Oh.”  _ You can tell me, _ she wanted to say. She hoped that the words hung, unspoken, in the air, that maybe he would catch onto them.

“I don’t want to burden you with my problems,” he whispered.

Jester put her hands on his shoulders and turned him so he faced her. “You don’t need to hide, Caleb. Not from me.”

He closed his eyes and nodded. “ _ Ja, _ I know. But it’s… it’s been a long time.”

“Why don’t we start by getting in the bath?”

“I’ve tried. I can’t lift my arms high enough to take my shirt off.”

“Who said that we needed to undress to take a bath? Come on.” Jester slipped her shoes off and stepped into the hot water. It was extremely weird, stepping into a bath with clothes on, but she did it.

Caleb raised his eyebrows. “Isn’t that the whole point?”

Jester held out her hand and wiggled her fingers. “Come on, Caleb. The water’s really nice.”

Rolling his eyes, he took her hand. She led him into the water, and together they sat down. Water sloshed over the sides of the tub. It wasn’t big enough for them to sit side-by-side, so Caleb leaned back against Jester’s chest. Both of their soaked clothes rose to the surface, floating around them.

“This is so weird,” he said.

Jester giggled. Caleb hummed and leaned his head back against her shoulder. He closed his eyes. Jester ran her fingers through his hair and traced his well-trimmed beard.

“I must have done something good,” he mumbled.

“What makes you say that?”

“To deserve you.”

“You didn’t have to do anything, silly.”

Caleb grabbed her wrist and kissed her fingertips. Butterflies exploded in Jester’s stomach. “I find that hard to believe.”

“Believe it.” Her conversation with Fjord came back to her. “How badly were you hurt in the fight?”

Caleb opened his mouth to speak.

“And be honest.”

Caleb pursed his lips. “I’ve… been better. And your spells worked wonders, but I thought that the bath would help soothe my muscles some more.”

Jester wrapped her arms around him and held him close. “Were you limping earlier?”

He nodded.

“Why did you try to hide it?”

“I didn’t want you to worry. You do so much for everyone, for me, that I didn’t want to burden you.”

Jester closed her eyes. One of Caleb’s hands came to rest on hers, and she grabbed hold of it. “I  _ want _ you to burden me, Caleb. I want you to tell me things. I want you to tell me when you’re limping, or when you’re hurt, or when something good happens to you. I love you, and I want to help you.”

“It won’t be easy. I’m a broken man.”

“And I’m a broken woman. All of us are broken, all of us need someone to hold us sometimes.”

“Like you’re doing now?”

“Exactly.”

Caleb turned and pressed his lips to her forehead. Water and clothes bubbled between them and over the side of the tub. “I love you too, Jester Lavorre.”

“Wait, what?”

Caleb’s blue eyes sparkled. “You said that you loved me, correct?”

Jester blinked. “Did I? When…  _ Oh.” _

Caleb chuckled. “You didn’t realize that you said it, did you?”

“No! And I  _ was _ going to tell you and I  _ do _ love you but I had a plan! It wasn’t supposed to be in a bath!”

“No, Jester,” Caleb said with a smile. “It was perfect. Thank you.” He cupped her face with both of his hands and kissed her forehead again. Jester put her hands on his waist and smiled. 

“Would it be all right if I kissed you?” she asked.

Caleb leaned back, his hands still cupping her cheeks. A grin broke out on his face. “Yes, Jester, you may.”

When Jester went back to her room a while later, she ran into Fjord. He raised an eyebrow. “Why are you all wet?”

Jester shrugged. “I talked to Caleb.”

He nodded, still clearly confused. “Well, good night.”

“Good night.”

Fjord went into his room as Caleb came up the stairs, drying his hair off with his coat. “As much as I enjoyed the bath, let’s undress beforehand. I’m not sure these will be dry by tomorrow.”

Jester shrugged. But she smiled and pulled Caleb in for another kiss. Soft, quick, with their hands held between them. “Good night, Caleb.”

Caleb brushed his nose against hers. “Good night, Jester.”

“Don’t get crushed by any dragons until I get my spells back.”

Caleb grinned. “I won’t.”

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading, and don't forget to leave a comment/kudos!!


End file.
